When the German national football team plays in a tournament in their own country, the Chancellor and his cabinet members are often in the stands. These business trips are not cheap.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the federal government’s flights to the German national team’s games at the European Football Championship cost 531,000 euros. This includes six missions by the German army’s air force, which flew Chancellor Olaf Scholz and several members of his cabinet to games. The most expensive flight cost 114,487.41 euros from Berlin to Stuttgart and back for the Germany-Hungary game on June 19.
The figures and data come from a response from the Ministry of Defense to a question from Left Party Bundestag member Sören Pellmann. The “Welt” newspaper reported on this. The answer has been made available to the German Press Agency. Pellmann sharply criticized the high costs.
Chancellor orders, ministers fly with
Four of the six flights listed were ordered by the Federal Chancellery, and other cabinet members such as Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser and Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach flew with them. Like the Stuttgart flight, these missions each cost around a hundred thousand euros.
A flight arranged by the Interior Ministry to the Germany-Scotland match with stops in Frankfurt am Main, Munich and Berlin cost 55,306.97 euros; a flight by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock from Frankfurt to Luxembourg after the Switzerland-Germany match cost 47,039.98 euros – all according to information from the ministry’s response.
“Irresponsible or aloof”
“Anyone who incurs costs of more than half a million euros for six alleged business trips is either completely irresponsible or completely out of touch,” said Pellmann, chairman of the Left Party group in the Bundestag, to the “Welt” newspaper. The air force “should not be the alternative travel option for an evening entertainment program of the federal government,” he added. “But presumably the air force is the more pleasant means of travel for the ministers and the chancellor because of the cuts to the railway.”
In its response, the Ministry of Defense points out that this is a “full cost calculation of the aircraft used (including personnel costs).” The flight hours are covered in the Bundeswehr’s annual program and “are used for the purpose of obtaining/acquiring the pilot’s license.” What this means is that some costs and flight hours would probably have been necessary anyway.
Criticism of “honor card” for Chancellor’s wife
Left Party MP Christian Görke also criticized the fact that Chancellor Scholz had his wife Britta Ernst accompany him to games and used “honorary tickets” for this. “While real fans had to dig deep into their pockets, the Chancellor’s wife sat in premium seats on several occasions – for free or at the public’s expense,” complained Görke. He called on Ernst to cover the costs.
In the government’s response to a written inquiry from Görke, however, it states: “It has been state practice for decades that the heads of the constitutional bodies of the Federal Republic of Germany can be accompanied by their partners when attending events. On the basis of this state practice, Ms Ernst accompanied the Federal Chancellor to the matches of the European Football Championship.”
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
